DURHAM — Playing from behind finally caught up to the University of New Hampshire hockey team last weekend.

“I can’t remember the last time we scored the first goal,” said goalie Casey DeSmith.

That’s because it was almost a month ago. The opposition has scored first in each of the Wildcats’ last six games.

They managed to come back and win four of those contests, but that’s a tough way to survive.

They weren’t able to overcome the early deficits in a pair of losses to Union in which UNH scored only twice on 80 shots and never led.

“It was frustrating,” said coach Dick Umile. “We had our chances. We just couldn’t finish.”

The Wildcats are 8-1-0 when leading at the end of one period and 11-0-0 when leading after two.

“We have talked about it,” DeSmith said. “We do try to take a different approach every game and come out even harder than we did the game before.”

“Every game you want to get the first goal to set the tempo for the rest of the game,” said Wildcat captain Eric Knodel. “That’s definitely something we need to keep working on. The first couple shifts haven’t been good in the past six games.”

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ERIC KNODEL

The loss of two of the team’s top six scorers won’t help the situation as the Wildcats prepare for the Hockey East stretch run beginning with a home-and-home series this weekend against archrival Maine.

They’ll be without defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk and forward Grayson Downing, who were both injured last Saturday.

“You’ve got to have a short memory I guess,” DeSmith said. “I thought the team battled through some adversity, especially on Saturday night.”

Van Riemsdyk fractured an ankle and is expected to miss six weeks while Downing will likely miss three to four weeks with a sprained shoulder.

Back-up goalie Jeff Wyer is also out with cartilage damage to a knee.

“We’ve been through things like this before,” Umile said. “It’s an opportunity to get through adverse situations, and sometimes they make you a better team.”

“The guys responded and did a good job,” Umile said. “Now we’ve got to do it on a regular basis.”

“It just showed the character that we have,” Knodel said. “That’s an easy way for a team to roll over and die.”

The Wildcats host Maine tonight (7:30, WBIN, FOX College Sports) at the Whittemore Center. The teams meet again Saturday night (7, FOX College Sports) at Alfond Arena in Orono, Maine.

UNH has 10 games left in the regular season, all against Hockey East opponents. The Wildcats (13-12-1 overall, 5-5-0 HE) are focused on getting home ice for the playoffs.

“I think the team’s ready for the weekend,” Knodel said. “Everyone knows what they have to do with those guys out of the lineup. We can’t have any more hiccups the rest of the year.”

The Wildcats also want to avoid a one-and-done format in the first round. The top five teams get a first-round bye while the bottom six play for the right to advance.

The top four get home ice for the best-of-three quarterfinal series.

“It’s definitely important to get a first-round bye,” Knodel said. “You don’t want to leave your season to a one-game series. That could end badly.”

Wildcats are currently in sixth place in the league standings. They’re two points behind the No. 20 Black Bears (11-8-3, 5-3-2 HE), who took just one of a possible four Hockey East points last weekend with a tie against UMass-Lowell and loss to league-leading Boston College.

With last weekend’s double dip, the Wildcats had a four-game win streak snapped. They’ll try to get back on track against Maine, which is 3-1-1 in the last five games against UNH.

The fact that the Wildcats will be missing two key players only adds to the intrigue of White out the Whitt night as the students have returned to campus following semester break.

“I think it’s on everyone to bring a whole new level to their game,” DeSmith said. “I think it’s a good situation that we have on Friday night to start rebuilding and making up for those injuries.”

Six of the Wildcats next seven games are at home.

“It’s time for our team to make a statement as to who we are,” Knodel said.